Archive for January, 2018

Caroline Shannon-Karasik did a nice job researching this question in a story she wrote. But she did miss a couple of key facts.

A link to Caroline’s column is provided below, and I loved the research she did into the last couple of Super Bowl rings and the complexity of making the Patriots Super Bowl LI ring from last year.

She determined that the last two Super Bowl rings “cost” around $36,000 to $37,000 to make.

That could very well be, but she did not take into account the following things:

1) The NFL provides some (or most of the cost) of each winning and losing championship ring from the Super Bowl and teams are allowed to contribute additional funds on the rings should they wish to go over the NFL’s budget. Keep in mind teams often do contribute extra money.

2) Jostens, Tiffany, Balfour, and others bid each year on the contract to make the Super Bowl winning and losing rings. The teams get to choose the winning bid, not the NFL. Because of the publicity, bragging rights, and prestige that comes along with making these rings, the manufacturers heavily discount the cost. That’s a very important piece of information the author missed. Perhaps a Super Bowl ring could cost $36,000 to make, but the winning bidder will provide it to the league and team for much less.

3) The author, smartly took her figures and mentioned two low-end luxury car brands that could be purchased instead for around $36,000 or $37,000 but then even went so far to mention one could buy a house. A house…. really???

4) Last, the author got it right – championship ring collectors might pay more than these figures due to the scarcity of championship rings that enter the market place. She fell into the trap of mentioning a couple of well-known Super Bowl rings that sold at auction for incredible amounts of money. She failed to mention or explain that many front office and lesser know player Super Bowl rings have sold below and around $20,000.00.

Minneapolis will be full of Super Bowl rings from now until Monday. Visitors and locals will be seeing them everywhere:

If you’ve never had the experience of being in a Super Bowl city the week of the game, you’re missing something special.

Like spring break for football fans, former players and active players, descend upon the designated city each and every year. You will see and run into them everywhere.

A lot more of them visit and hang out in the city than actually go to the game.

Current and former players, coaches, and football executives, lucky enough to have Super Bowl rings or other championship rings wear their prize possessions all week long.

I’m not exaggerating – you will see tons of Super Bowl rings in restaurants, shopping malls, football events and on the street. Most of the owners of these championship rings are so proud of their rings and often gracious enough to let fans and admirers take pictures wearing the rings.

Twitter and Facebook will be packed with such photos – just as the one shown above, in this instance, with the Seahawks only Super Bowl ring – from 2013.

Please remember as always I buy championship rings. If you would like to sell your championship ring and maintain your privacy, please contact me.

Talk about trying to strike while the oven is hot; this front office Super Bowl ring can be yours for $100,000:

The seller of this eBay listing is offering a front-office Patriots Super Bowl XXXVI ring for sale with a $100,000 price tag.

In fairness to the seller, here’s the good stuff you should know about the championship ring shown above:

1) It contains real diamonds and is made of 14K white solid gold, just like the player’s version.

2) Except for a missing uniform number on the side of the Super Bowl ring, it is the exact size and version Jostens made for the players.

3) The championship ring comes with the impressive wood personalization box, the exact ones the player received.

4) This is a stunning Super Bowl ring, and the first winning one the team was awarded.

Now the bad, and in this case the bad far outweighs the good:

1) The Super Bowl ring has an asking price of $100,000; however the seller is willing to negotiate.

2) If the seller is asking $100,000 is he really going to take $20,000 to $25,000; which is the going rate for Patriots front office rings from this year?

3) The listing mentions Tom Brady. I have no idea other than to attract attention to the auction why it has Brady’s name in the auction heading.

One thing I’ve learned about writing this championship blog over the years is that occasionally people do silly or uneducated purchases of championship rings. But those instances are few and far between.

I have a feeling this Super Bowl ring will be on the market place for quite a while. It reminds me of another front office Patriots Super Bowl 2001 ring that was on the market place for years, although that seller was asking a little more than half the price of this one.

Please remember as always, I buy championship rings. Just at realistic prices. Unlike this auction where the original recipient’s name was shown, no one will know you sold me your championship ring.

This player-size Super Bowl ring from the estate of team broadcaster Bill King, fetched $30,343.

Sorry I am only now getting to blog about this championship ring auction sale, which concluded in late December. The auction also included other championship rings, but none more desirable than this Raider Super Bowl ring. The sale was run by Grey Flannel Auctions.

Normally player-size, front office Super Bowl rings sell for around $20,000.00 and often less. But a $20,000 estimate is a very rough one. Some earlier ones, with less bling and designed smaller, often sell below this figure. A modern Patriots Super Bowl ring, that would be twice the size as the Raiders Super Bowl XI ring, would go for a lot more.

Perhaps the high price this championship ring earned was due to the fact that Raider Super Bowl rings are quite rare (except for their Super Bowl XVIII ring, which has flooded the market place and brings in much lower prices than this example).

Another factor that helped this Super Bowl ring sell for such a high number was that it came with the rare wooden Super Bowl presentation box. Al Davis and the original manufacturer of the Raider Super Bowl rings, Lenox, produced a very unusual wooden box. Most of the Raider championship ring boxes are no longer around.

To see what these presentation boxes looked like, you can visit the Grey Flannel website or my Super Bowl ring gallery, located with a link from my home page.

Please remember as always, I buy championship rings. If you would like to sell your championship ring in complete privacy, please contact me.

Looks like we are still in sluggish times for mid-level to entry-level championship ring pricing:

I was interested to see how the Paragon Auctions event would do – particularly with their championship ring offerings.

The recent auction showed low to mid-end championship rings are still not pulling in the money that they did several years back. This is not a slight on Paragon Auctions, we have seen these lower prices throughout the hobby place and at other auctions. You can visit their website to see what sold, what didn’t sell, and the prices realized on items that did move.

The gorgeous Stanley Cup championship ring shown above, was smaller than the player’s size, yet it’s full of bling and will make a great addition to a championship ring collection. The selling price of $10,555.00 is OK; not great, but not so bad. It gives us an idea of where the smaller, non-player, recent Stanley cup championship rings should sell for.

Like other auction houses, Paragon had their hits and misses. A front office 2009 Yankee World Series ring (same size as a player’s ring) sold for $13,513.00. That’s not a bad price at all. But why so low for a decent price Yankee player size World Series ring? Because so many of these front office rings have entered the market place, there is more supply than demand.

The Pirates 1979 World Series ring that was featured in a blog on this site a month or so ago, did not meet the reserve.

One item that did well was a 2002 Miguel Tejada A.L. MVP award. While not a championship ring, many collectors of rings do chase awards and trophies too. The impressive plaque sold for $29,770.00.

Please remember I buy championship rings all the time. If you would like to sell your championship ring in complete privacy, please contact me.